This website is a great resource for teachers and students alike to understand phonemic differences within different dialects of English. The clickable accent chart allows you to hear a multitude of words pronounced by English speakers in various regions of Canada, the U.S., England, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland, as well as by speakers of world Englishes from countries such as India, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Trinidad and more. The clickable accent map will open links to ultrasound video recordings of speech samples from various regions around the world.
This YouTube quiz plays 22 different audio clips of native speakers of regional varieties of Englishes (British, New Zealand, Australian, Canadian, Singaporean, Jamaican, Welsh, Indian, South African, Irish etc). It is a really effective way to demonstrate to students that native speakers of English can sound very different from one another, and that there are many unique varieties of English spoken around the world, (even within different regions of the same country). Have your students take the quiz for fun, or better yet, have them watch you take the quiz!
This website was prepared by Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab and provides a number of helpful resources pertaining to the development and use of World Englishes. Most notable amongst its resources is its Regional Examples page which demonstrates differences in grammar and pronunciation by comparing British, American, South African and Asian Englishes. Additionally there are sections on Classroom Applications and Activities and well as suggested readings that shed light on the functions of English in other regions (e.g. Iran, South Pacific, the Middle East, Turkey, Malaysia), on digital English, and on linguistic imperialism. These resources will assist teachers to understand the socio-linguistic context of the varieties of English that their students bring to class.
